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Landmine accident survivor Khwza Bibi. [Photo: SPADO] |
Following the devastation caused by the extreme flooding in Pakistan, MAG has been working with our national partner SPADO to limit the dangers people face from landmines and other deadly items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) dislodged by the floods.
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In Deira Ismail Khan and Tank, two areas in south Waziristan in the north of the country, refugees displaced by the recent conflict are at risk not only from contaminated and raging flood waters, but from lethal landmines and bombs moved from other areas by the floodwater.
MAG-trained SPADO (Sustainable Peace and Development Organisation) teams are now working closely with the local population to educate as many people as possible on the dangers of landmines and UXO, explaining what they look like and that they should not be touched at any time.
MAG has also signed an agreement with health NGO Global Medic to arrange for our partners at SPADO to deliver life-saving water purification tablets to the hard-to-reach communities in the contested areas of DI Khan and Tank.
“Fast-thinking co-operation between international and national relief organisations at a time like this is vital and can save hundreds of lives," said Frederic Maio, Regional Operations Manager at MAG, who is in Pakistan. "We’re really proud of the work SPADO are doing out in these areas we can’t get to, and are committed to continuing our support for them throughout this really difficult time.”
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MAG-trained SPADO staff giving a participatory Risk Education session to schoolchildren earlier in the year. |
SPADO’s Mine Risk Education (MRE) teams are working in collaboration with UNICEF and MAG to reach out to these communities most at risk. They conduct MRE sessions at schools, targeting children and teaching them about the threats and vital safe behaviour.
This work has already led to an emergency clearance task being carried out by the Pakistani military. On 13 August, SPADO teams were conducting MRE sessions with children when a community member told them about a suspicious item he had seen in the flood water in the Kokar area of DI Khan.
The team immediately went there and found it was an anti-personnel landmine. SPADO informed the military bomb disposal squad who arrived to defuse the mine.
Despite this, SPADO has already found four people who have suffered devastating injuries in just the last two weeks when triggering landmines displaced by the floods.
On 9 August, when the floodwater subsided seven-year-old Taib Hussain and his friends Sadia Bibi, 12, and Safi Ullah, 13, saw an object they didn’t recognise so picked it up. It was an anti-personnel landmine and it exploded. Taib lost his leg in the blast, and Sadia and Safi were seriously injured.
Elsewhere in Tank, 55-year-old Khwza Bibi [pictured above] was searching for firewood in the wake of the floods when she stood on a landmine which exploded. She lost her leg.
MAG thanks the following donor to our Pakistan operations: ECHO (European Commission - Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection).
20 August 2010
See also:
- PAKISTAN: 'Their situation is desperate'
- More on MAG's work in Pakistan
- Global Medic website [external link]
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